Not to be outdone by fun-sized candies on Halloween or big-bosomed turkeys on Thanksgiving, “barbecue” – the collective term for grilled meats of any sort – has staked its sticky claim on Independence Day.

Whether slow cooked, flame broiled, spit roasted or smoked over charcoal, wood, gas or some combination of fuels, barbecue will undoubtedly be on the menus (as well as the fingers, cheeks and shirts) of many Americans Friday.

Relatively few backyard barbecuers, however, will venture beyond basic and boring beef burgers and hot dogs. Some self-proclaimed grillmasters will aim to impress their guests by adding humdrum chicken, pulled pork or beef steaks to their pre-fireworks feasts.

But the more adventurous culinary artists among us will pull rabbits from their hats (or freezers) and add wild game to their July Fourth fare.

Since Aunt Linda turns her nose up at the mere mention of cooked game, stealth, unfortunately, is frequently one of the key ingredients that makes any hunter’s barbecue recipe tasty. To fly under the radar of suspicious relatives and friends, backyard chefs with penchants for incorporating self-harvested (rather than store-bought) meat into their cookouts deftly bait their guests with the promise of common hamburgers, but switch beef for a leaner, tastier deer/moose/beef blend.

When those same cookout commandos replace lame, mystery-meat hotdogs with venison-based sausages, the party really starts to heat up.

When Cousin Joshua – the family hipster who is progressive enough to eat free-range chicken but surprisingly close-minded to the prospects of hunting one’s own food – brings his appetite and unsolicited advice to the festivities, organic options abound. While the grillmaster could appease Josh by pretending the white-labeled, frozen chicken parts he’s about to plop on the grill are certified free range, he can take the higher road by saving the chicken for crab bait and expertly grilling some wild turkey thighs, pheasant breasts and dove medallions instead.

According to Brother-in-law Roy, a barbecue ain’t a barbecue without real Southern barbecue. He’s right. The popularity of slow-cooked pulled-pork, pulled-chicken and beef brisket steadily has been growing on the East Coast. Family recipes for the sweet, tangy, succulent, lip-smacking barbecue are prized and protected like bricks of .22 ammo. I’m a firm believer that awesome barbecue sauce makes everything taste, well, awesome, so backyard chefs can continue their covert cooking missions by making pulled game. Any game.

Rabbit? Check. Squirrel? Check. Goose, duck, dove and deer? Check, check, check and check. All kidding aside, slow-cooked rabbit and squirrel taste like chicken, and when the meat is pulled from the bones, slathered in barbecue sauce and spooned onto a potato roll, it’s nice. Really nice. Slow-cooked and shredded goose, duck, dove and deer also make unbelievable barbecue that will fool (and perhaps enlighten) your guests who have wild game aversions. (This stealthy approach does not apply to guests with food allergies or strict diets, of course.)

Not to be forgotten, there’s always one uncle at every July Fourth bash who expects (and perhaps even demands) a well-prepared steak (and six or seven beers) to help him celebrate Independence Day.

After the clandestine cooking operations are complete, education-minded wild game chefs can share their lists of ingredients with their guests.

Then they can sit back and watch the fireworks.

Steven Kendus’ Hunter’s Journal appears monthly in The News Journal. Kendus is the author of “Hunting The First State: A Guide to Delaware Hunting.” Follow Kendus at www.HuntingTheFirstState.com and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Contact him at skendus@HuntingTheFirstState.com.